


The female of the species

by Keenir



Category: Primeval
Genre: AU, F/M, Gen, Shannon - Freeform, creature - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-24
Updated: 2010-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 00:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/143495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keenir/pseuds/Keenir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Helen chats with Sarah and Shannon.  Then Helen jumps in a lake with a giant crocodile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The female of the species

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fredbassett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fredbassett/gifts).



> Prompt(s): Helen/Ryan. It’s Nick who disappears, not Helen. (and Stephen spoken of respectfully)
> 
> With thanks to Munchkinofdoom for a superb beta-read.
> 
> Warnings: I have written Helen doing something I doubt even Steve Irwin and Dr. Brady Barr would do. That and hints of upcoming/future smut.  
> Disclaimer: I own none of them. Except for Shannon…sort of (she’s a computer tech in the episode with the Terror Birds)
> 
> Note: Why is it the ALE? Well, why did canon use ADD? (which isn’t just mathematical)

**In Professor Hart’s Office:**

“How’s museum life treating you, Connor?” Stephen asked once the younger man had finally sat down. _Still a bundle of energy, I see,_ Stephen thought with a smile.

“Oh, you know,” Connor said. “Same old, same old. Lots of bone-counting and looking for details to tell species apart.”

Stephen suspected there was a lot more going on than Connor was saying. _But so long as history isn’t repeating, I won’t pry._ “So you’re well?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Connor said.

“And Dr. Cutter?”

“She’s doing great. She’s heading a whole - sub-department now.”

 _What were you about to tell me?_ Stephen wondered. “Anyone special in her life?” Stephen asked.

Connor nodded.

“Really?” Stephen asked. “Anyone I would know?”

“No,” Connor said. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course,” Stephen said. “Anything you like.”

“Why‘d you send me to assist Dr. Cutter ? I like my job, honest,” Connor added before Stephen got the wrong idea. “But why couldn‘t I be a TA for you like you were for Professor Cutter? Wouldn’t I have been a big help?”

“I was hoping you would do more than I did,” Stephen said. _Or at least better than I did._ “And it looks like I was right.”

 **~~~**

 **One Day Later:**

“Nine,” Helen said, looking up at the godawful plastic tree sitting just off-centre and that was taller than the ceiling in Lester’s office. The true centre of the room was taken up by the sprawling ALE.

“Nine?” Shannon asked, looking up from her terminal.

“Her ninth Christmas since her husband vanished,” Sarah said, shuffling through the photo files on the Anomaly Locator Equipment’s central computer.

“And my first since Nick returned,” Helen said.

“Oh,” Shannon said. “Sorry.”

“Did you bring him back?”

“No.”

“Then don’t apologize.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Nick is back, and there’s no avoiding that,” Helen said to them both. “Therefore, we deal with it. Better than I have.”

“It’s not your fault,” Sarah said. “Your ex is gorgeous. He almost convinced me, too.”

Shannon sighed, reminding Helen of those suspicions she had formed of the computer tech. Helen suspected that Nick had convinced Shannon to help him. The outcome of that episode had left the younger woman feeling a right idiot regarding her trust - and taste - in men.

“And then you tied him up and left him hanging,” Helen said. _Nick was then brought into custody, and misled us all right into a nest of Phonorocids while he slipped away through the Gyres. Or Anomalies, as he calls them._

Sarah shrugged. “Connor made a better argument.”

Helen looked at her, one eyebrow raised. She didn’t need to ask ‘and here I thought your clothes were mussed because the two of you had been chased by a Creature through the Museum.’

Sarah turned red.

“As I told you, Connor would have been wasted as a professor’s assistant,” Helen said.

“Isn’t that what you said Stephen told you?” Sarah asked. They both remembered banter like this, back when they’d both worked for the Museum, before and after Nick had disappeared.

Helen nodded. _He and I ended our… ‘relationship’ before Nick left._ “I simplified what he said.”

Sarah snorted. “I notice you don’t do that for Captain Ryan.”

“I shouldn’t have to coddle the man in charge of the ARC’s manpower,” Helen said. “He should be capable of comprehension on a variety of topics.”

“Oh I know,” Sarah said. Helen knew the look Sarah was wearing now. Knew it from seeing her aim it at other people over the years. Never at her. It was the look that said ‘You like him.’

“Why do you persist with this idea? Yes, he and I have become friends. It isn’t like I date him.”

“I’ll have to remember that one, for the next time my mother asks me about my prospects,” replied Sarah.

The ALE started making all the noises Connor had programmed into it, drowning out Helen’s very mature response.

 **~~~**

 **Two Days Later”**

The Gyre had closed an hour after it opened. But that had been enough time for a mega predator to swim through, into a lake stocked with sport fish. With such easy pickings, the Creature had remained only to find itself trapped when the Gyre closed.

They had learned that they were dealing with a Dakosaurus here. Connor’s files had it listed as a four-metre-long Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous crocodilomorph.

This one, however, was a full metre longer.

Helen knew the Dakosaurus had quickly learned to avoid motorboats. _The sports fishermen did us that much of a favor,_ she thought. And she was counting on that behavior continuing or her plan wouldn’t work if it forgot all it had learned here. _If it forgets, Tom and Sarah will be vulnerable while I’m getting into position._ But she didn’t mention it, as that would only worry them.

“You do realize this is madness,” Tom said while giving a final check to the rope tied around Helen’s waist. There was a bit of extra fabric insulating her from potential rope burn, but otherwise there was nothing on her but a wetsuit, the rope, and Ryan’s Army knife.

“Thank you for that observation,“ Helen said dryly.

“It’s a variant on Doyle’s axiom,” Sarah said, keeping a lookout for the Dakosaurus just in case. Five-metre-long marine crocodiles were not at all as easy to see in a lake as one might expect.

“When all other plans fail, try the impossible?” Ryan asked.

“Precisely,” Helen said.

“Murphy isn’t the only one who says it’s a bad idea,” Tom said, but Helen merely shrugged. But she went willingly when he pulled her in for a bold kiss.

When they parted, Sarah said, “We should talk technical more often.”

 _Please. Connor’s infatuated with you, and given how you two looked when we pulled you from that closet, it is mutual,_ Helen thought. To them both, “Be ready,” she said, and jumped into the water. _Now come for me,_ she dared the Dakosaurus.

As she had predicted, the Creature approached her only after the boat had returned to shore. Helen looked it over as it barreled through the clear water towards her - deep jaws more like a Tyrannosaurid than that of a modern croc, four paddle limbs, no feet or claws, a tail given over completely to propulsion.

 _Not a whip,_ Helen thought with relief. _That makes this a little easier._

When it was near enough, it opened its mouth. Helen only just missed getting snagged on one of the numerous large teeth. Being in water increased Helen’s mobility, true; but that was an advantage matched by the Dakosaurus.

Helen jackknifed, wrapping her body around the Creature as it swam past - missing her by inches - reinforcing her action by holding on with her hands and feet. _Got you now!_ she thought triumphantly as she waited for it to stop thrashing. Then she carefully freed one hand and gave the signal for the rope to be hauled to shore.

Thankfully, Dakosaurus was part of a lineage who had abandoned the possession of armored skin. And unlike modern alligators and crocodiles, or the 1-metre-long crocodilomorph which had emerged from a Gyre a month and a half ago, its tail couldn’t function as a weapon even if this massive Dakosaurus managed to curl itself into an O shape.

Then it did something Helen hadn’t counted on. In lieu of a death roll, it plunged toward the lake bed. _You think you’ll scrape me off?_ Helen thought. _I think not,_ and squeezed, applying all her strength and everything she had learned in ten years of martial arts lessons to choking the Creature.

A burst of bubbles escaped it, forcing it to shoot up to the surface. Helen gave the rope the pre-agreed-upon tug again before the thought occurred to her: _You’re going to breach, aren’t you?_ In response, she redoubled her squeezing.

The Dakosaurus hit the water’s surface, but didn’t leap out. It and Helen gulped fresh lungfuls of air.  
Helen didn’t relax: she knew crocs would have brief rests between bouts of struggling and biting. _The trick is to do our work while you’re catching your next wind_.

The creature headed for shore, but it didn’t act up until its head was halfway up the shallow incline of the bank. _That_ was when it attempted to death roll Helen off of it.

But it didn’t manage even one revolution, because Ryan speared its tail with one of Connor’s inventions, pinning it to the muddy bank. _Good timing_ , Helen thought.

Soon enough, the Early Cretaceous Dakosaurus gave up the fight, not protesting as its jaws were roped shut.

As she let go of its neck, Helen suspected she was too sore _and_ too shaken-and-stirred to dismount and walk away on her own. That was part of the reason why she let Tom peel her off and support her up to where Ditzy had the medical equipment out and prepped.

“You do realize, don’t you, that you don’t get medical Frequent Flyer Miles,” Ditzy said to Helen.

Helen shrugged off Ditzy's concern. It wasn't like she hadn't heard it often enough before. So her capture methods sometimes bordered on suicidal, but it worked for her and that was all she asked for.

“Once again, impossible methods worked. What would you be willing to attempt, Ditz, if you knew everything was possible?” Helen asked.

“World peace,” the medic replied.

“Afraid the best I can do is offer you Nigella’s phone number.”

Ditzy pretended to consider it as he pulled himself to his feet. “You patch her up, mate,” Ditzy said with a wry grin, clapping Ryan on the shoulder as Ditzy left.

“With pleasure,” Tom said, though he said it to Helen.

“Just remember which ointment goes where,” Helen said and grinned tiredly. It had been one hell of a ride.

And that was when it began to snow. Hard. It was tempting to look at one another more, rather than up to see if the weather shift was brought about by a widening Gyre.


End file.
